A competition for a six-month internship and subsequent contract at Ferrari is showing promise for 18 graduates from UK universities.

Over 5300 business and engineering graduates, from a total of 23 different countries, applied for the scheme.

The applicants were whittled down to a choice selection of just 96, 18 of which are from UK universities.

"This means the UK universities have fielded around 1 in 5 of all candidates worldwide," said a Ferrari spokesperson.

"This not only shows the extraordinary strength of the academic programmes in the UK, but also the enduring appeal of the Ferrari brand to those who are studying engineering or business at UK universities,"

Institutes represented by the graduates include Cambridge University, the Cranfield Institute of Technology, Durham University, the Imperial College of London, the London School of Economics, Oxford University and University College, London.

Each candidate is due to undergo another selection stage, which will take the form of a video conference on 22 January with Ferrari staff at Maranello. Following the interview, 48 of the applicants will be permitted to go forward.

These candidates will then be invited to Maranello, in February, for a two-day event where their abilities will be tested to ascertain their potential.

A total of five successful graduates will then start their internship at Ferrari in April, followed by an open-ended contract. Three positions in the engineering department are on offer, and two are available in commercial and brand activities.

Francesco Balli, regional manager for Ferrari North Europe, commented: “We are delighted to see such a strong contingent from the top engineering and business schools in the UK.

"This competition is part of the Ferrari philosophy of investing in young talent, and we are proud to offer this opportunity to some of the brightest and most talented engineers and business brains whom we expect to bring innovation and creative thinking to the Ferrari of the future.”

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That just shows how irresponsible the Design Colleges have been at pumping out too many students when the industry does not have the space for them. I remember when between Art Center, RCA and Coventry it would be only 30-40 a year but now it is over well over that globally.
Shame the colleges are not training clay modellers and Alias modellers
Too many Designers too few jobs....Or am I wrong?

You're thinking of design, not engineering. For some reason the general public think everyone that works for an OEM is a designer. The reality is that a very small area of the the company does that (<5%). There are hundreds of disciplines relevant to working at a manufacturer besides design. It says in the article that these jobs are engineering and commercial/branding, so none of these jobs are suitable for designers from RCA or Coventry.

Design generally has an extremely small pool of jobs available to graduates. I found this over a decade ago coming from an industrial design background, very, very few end up making design their career.